A Fistful Of Rodians
by Crossfire.ue
Summary: A private investigator on the planet Iktotch investigates the disappearance of a man working for a powerful interplanetary crime boss. Original characters in the SW Universe. Please read & review. Thanks!
1. Prologue

It would be just my luck if a member of the IPF saw the flash of my blaster from the street. Chances are the garbage containers piled six meters high would have blocked the burst of light, but I was never one to take any chances. The rodian lay dead at my feet, half sprawled across a pile of discarded drink bulbs. He had struck his head on something hard when he fell, and blood leaked from a deep gash on his green forehead. More obvious, though, was the smoking hole in the chest of his stained green tunic.

I leaned down, tucked my blaster under my jacket, and quickly danced my fingers through the rodian's pockets. "Sorry, Aefeeh, but I told you I'd find your boss one way or another," I told the sightless multifaceted eyes. "It's too bad you opted for door number two."

My hands closed over several items, which I relocated to my own deep pockets. Moving as quickly as I could, I pulled poor Aefeeh deeper into the gathered trash and pulled some loose garbage and containers over him. Looking up and down the alleyway, I spun and when back into the dark bar I had met the rodian thug in only a few short moments earlier. There was still something to take care of.

It wasn't so much a bar, as it was urine-soaked hellhole. Dank, dark and seedy, it was a perfect for conducting illicit business. Which is why it was packed. An auto-wailer pumped out all the hits from fifteen years ago and a gray-skinned iotran bartender slung the watered-down piss that passed for beverages in this jynn-joint.

For a moment I was concerned that Aefeeh had some friends in this place. Seeing me walk back in through the rear door without the greasy green thug might bring a few shock-staves down on the back of my skull. I quickly realized my concerns were unnecessary – guys like Aefeeh never had friends, just partners, and partners that were more concerned about their own asses then the guys they worked with.

Almost as soon as the door swung shut behind me, I saw the one who must have been the rodian's partner. A little chadra-fan zipped out of a booth and ran for the main entrance, risking a peek over his vested shoulder at me as he went. I spat a curse and went after him. Despite the crowd in the bar I made it out into the street quickly, but the chadra-fan was nowhere to be seen. The people on the street were mostly tall, bulky iotrans so the mousy little bugger disappeared easily. I was about to give up when a shout and the roar of a repulsorlift caught my attention.

From a vehicle lot across the cracked traffic-way came a speeder, the chadra-fan at the controls and probably sitting on a box or something. The crowd tried to get out of the way, but at least half a dozen pedestrians were knocked asunder by the speeding vehicle. The speeder pulled into the traffic-way, careened off the side of a parked aircar, straightened out and began pulling away. Before I really realized what I was doing, my blaster was in my hand again and I was firing through the panicked pedestrians at the speeder. My second shot struck the left thruster pod; the third hit the speeder's exposed rear repulsor coils. The chadra-fan lost control of the vehicle as the back of the speeder struck the traffic-way, throwing a shower of sparks over three meters into the air. With the left thruster spewing greasy smoke, the speeder spun on that side, slid across the traffic-way, bounced off a vending cart and came to a crashing halt against a duracrete wall.

"Out of my way!" I shouted, pushing through the inevitable onlookers. I still had my blaster brandished, and quickly tucked it back into the holster under my long jacket. The chadra-fan was trying to pull himself from the wreck, but he was badly injured and not particularly spry. An older iotran woman began helping the small chadra-fan out of the speeder, but I stepped between them.

"I'll take it from here," I said in the local dialect. The woman huffed at me but backed off, and I hauled the little guy from the speeder, dropping him on the sidewalk unceremoniously. I crouched next to the bat-faced thug. "Alright, where's your boss?" I asked him in basic.

"Me no-ey know," came the squeaky reply.

I shook the little guy, and he winced against the pain he was experiencing. "That's what Aefeeh told me, and now he's feeding the scow-rats, so, where's Jyergo?"

I heard the telltale whine an instant before the bolt struck the chadra-fan in the forehead and the thug dropped like a bag of rocks. I looked up to the rooftops behind me and caught a glint of movement before a rain of blaster shots came down. They peppered the ground and the thug, the speeder, and a few closely gathered civilians. I dove behind the damaged vending cart mere seconds before a ball of flame engulfed the speeder, taking my best lead to Jyergo Huthis's whereabouts with it. The blaster shots stopped, and before I lost conciousness I saw the shape of a figure on a nearby rooftop and the shadow of two head-tails.


	2. Chapter 1

"Darien Power."

I looked up, taking the cold cloth away from my face. I hadn't been very close to the explosion, but I was close enough to get a little flash-fried. Standing over me was a hulking iotran IPF officer, whom I knew all to well. "Hello, captain, what brings you down from your lofty heights to the scuzz holes of Spacer Town?" I asked Haris.

The iotran glared down at me, ignoring the flurry of police activity going on around him. "So, I receive a call half an hour ago," Captain Haris hissed at me. "And I'm told there's been some action down at The Guzzler's Nook; a bunch of civilians injured and Qort Teeno dead on the sidewalk with a hole through his skull. And do you think I was surprised when I hear Darien Power's name mentioned?"

Standing, I held the cool cloth to my cheek. "I'm going to guess, no."

"What's the story, Power?" Haris asked. "And don't feed me a line of urechk, you know I'll see it coming a kilometer away."

Haris, of course, was right. He was a damned good police officer and had one hell of an eye for a fib. Call it sixth sense, call it creepy iotran intuition, the police captain could see a lie as easily as I could look up in the morning and see the sun. In all my years of dealing with Haris, I had never gotten one by him. Not that it wouldn't keep me from trying, though.

"Ah, come on, Haris," I said, trying to look plaintive. "I was just enjoying a drink at my favourite bar, here, when…"

Haris's glare cut me off. "Try again – or do you not want to keep your investigator's license?"

"Jyergo Huthis," I said through a grimace. "I'm trying to track him down."

Haris rocked back a bit at the mention of Huthis's name. Jyergo Huthis was the self-proclaimed kingpin of crime in Kol, the capital city of this nation of Iotra, my hometown and Haris's jurisdiction. The huge criminal was a herglic – a giant, muscular race notorious for their lack of smarts. Huthis had, somewhere, come across a xenologist who decided that this herglic would be good to practice an experimental intelligence-boosting project on. It worked, and with startling results. Jyergo's intelligence shot up beyond expectations and through wise investments and physical intimidation, he became the head of Kol Mining Conglomerates, the largest and most profitable corporation in this sector. However, KMC wasn't the only source of Jyergo Huthis's fortune. Violence was in the herglic's blood and crime was in his heart. Huthis was rumoured to be involved in numerous racketeering schemes, illegal spice trading, slavery and restricted weapons dealing. I wasn't about to tell Haris, but the blaster tucked under my jacket had a few of Jyergo Huthis's after-market modifications.

So, why was a two-bit private eye like me going after a big man like Jyergo Huthis?

"So, why is a two-bit private eye like you looking for Jyergo Huthis?" Haris asked brusquely after regaining his composure.

A med-tech stepped up to look at my facial burn. He shielded my eyes with a gloved hand and sprayed my cheek with something cool and soothing. The medtech muttered something about it taking a few hours to heal, entered some information on a datapad and walked away. I waited until he was out of earshot before I replied to Haris's question. "We both know Huthis likes to get away from it all for a while – sometimes months, right?" I said. "I've been hired to track down one of his personal entourage by someone who has a vested interest in his whereabouts."

Haris glared at me with his dark eyes while EMR officers sprayed the ruined speeder with a final layer of fire retardant before hauling it away. I could clearly see the stain left by Qort Teeno on the duracrete sidewalk. "You know," the iotran captain said calmly," I could just as easily take you downtown and hook you up to the…"

"Alright, alright!" I surrendered. "My client is the fiancée of this member of Huthis's gang. She's paying me some good creds to track down where Huthis has them all holed up and make sure he's still alive. Apparently that's in question, and she's worried. That's it. Plain and simple."

Haris narrowed his eyes in my direction and mimicked with his hands what the device he was talking about could do to me.

"Come on, quit busting my ass, Haris… it's the truth!" I snapped.

"Captain! You've got to see this, captain, we have a body!"

I'm sure Haris swore out loud and would have told me not to move, but I was already gone.

My office was on the edge of Spacer Town, near the merchant district of Kol. It was on the third floor of a run down tenement building, sandwiched between an after-hours dew house and a dance studio. From the street I could see the large windows of my rented space easily, my name emblazoned in glowing neon letters over the proclamation of my occupation; private investigator. I stood across the street from my building, staring at those letters.

My little business venture wasn't doing so well. I had relocated to Kol from Coret City on Corellia rather abruptly about three years previously. My employment with Corsec was cut off suddenly and my only viable option seemed to be to get out, and to get out fast. In the time I had been operating on Iotra, I had yet to turn a profit. What at one time was a substantial amount of savings was now a depressing amount of creds. But there was a light at the end of my tunnel, and she had walked her long legs into my office only a few days earlier.

She had shown up in my office, an absolute wreck. Despite the tears, which I'm a sucker for anyways, she could still pass for any holodrama starlet. There weren't too many humans living in Kol, and I generally knew who most of them were. This dame wasn't a local. She arrived with a dark blue protocol droid on one side, and a female iotran porter on the other, practically screaming that she was made of creds. Dressed in a flowing fur-trimmed jacket that made it seem as though a thick fog was following her around, she swept her luscious frame into my office.

"Mister Power," she said quietly, "I think my fiancée may be dead."

It was a standard opening – not as shocking a revelation to me as it must have been for her. She poured out her story while I poured out some drinks. I watched her intently, wanting her to understand I was interested in what she had to say, but not finding it difficult to stare into her bright hazel eyes. Chestnut brown hair cascaded in waves over her strong shoulders, stopping midway past her shoulderblades. When she removed her jacket, I found her to be wearing a sensible two-piece suit underneath, the diving neckline giving me the slightest but tantelizing glimpse of her cleavage. The suit jacket fitted tightly against her waist, accenting the curve of her hips. The pants were snug against her legs, and again I was impressed by her shape.

"I've lost touch with him," she said. "He was always so good at keeping contact with me, given what he does he felt it was necessary to keep me from worrying. He travels a lot, but he used to call me once a week by holonet."

Holonet, I thought. Someone does have a lot of creds to throw around. I tapped some data into a terminal built into my desktop. "I need to ask you a few questions, miss…?"

"Oh, yes, of course," she said. "Teryn Aeries," I was told. The iotran porter shifted slightly, trying to nonchalantly take in the layout of my inner office. The protocol droid simply stared straight ahead.

I tapped her name into my data terminal. Digital trackers immediately went to work, storming the 'net, digging up any information they could find on the name she gave me. It sounded familiar, but I couldn't place it. "And your fiancé? What's his name and occupation?"

"His name is Trey Sandstar, and he works for Jyergo Huthis."

It had taken all the self-control I could muster not to fall out of my chair when she mentioned Huthis's name. I had made my way across the street to my building and was on my way to my office. It was late, but I still had a lot of work to do. The club was in full swing, and I could hear it easily as lift ascended away from the second floor and slowed to a stop at the third. I stepped out into the long hallway, the door to my office about ten meters straight ahead of me, doors to utility closets and other rental spaces to my left and right as I made my way down the hall. Even from this distance, I could see my door had been forced, and was still slightly open. There were no lights on inside, so it wasn't as though Nanse was working late. Even in the odd situation I found myself in, that image still made me smile.

Nanse… working late… hah.

I slid my blaster from its holster under my jacket and approached the open door cautiously. As I reached out toward it, I could see that the code lock next to it had been jimmied open and put back together hastily. I began to push the door open ahead of me, and it was then that I heard another door open behind me.


	3. Chapter 2

Stupid, I thought as I shouldered into my office and hit the floor, rolling. Other offices branched off of the hallway leading to my rental space, and nobody would have been around at that hour. Nobody respectable, that is. My fall into the office jarred a potted tree which tipped over, the plant taking the incoming blaster shot against it's soft bark. My own weapon slipped from my grasp and skidded somewhere across the floor. Now prone on my side, I rolled in the direction of my pistol and two more blasts blew holes in the stained carpeting. As I struggled to my feet I could hear heavy boots running down the hallway. There was only one attacker. That was somewhat of a relief.

My blaster was lodged somehow under the leather two-seater in my outer office. Tugging on it, I found it had gotten caught on one of the gun's many bumpy modifications. As the footsteps grew closer, I pulled more violently on the blaster. It came free but left a large portion of the emitter underneath the seat; the weapon wouldn't fire. I was still staring in disbelief at the blaster's stunted barrel when my assailant stormed through the door.

He was big. I couldn't tell what species he was as his features were concealed in a hooded cloak, but I could make out heavily wrinkled skin on his arms and hands. He said something to me I couldn't understand and brought his DL-44 to bear on me. There was a sudden whine of high-powered servos and the clatter of metal as the stranger went down. Getting to my feet, I watched as Teryn Aeries' droid pummeled my assailant. A swift kick to the ribs, and the droid sent my attacker into a wall, leaving a large depression. As he tried to get up, his hood fell back revealing himself as a weequay. Spitting blood, the weequay rushed at the protocol droid, but was met with the cyborg's metal-clad fist. The assassin was rocketed back into the wall, deepening the depression and receiving a deep gash across his scalp. Bent over on one knee, the weequay gasped for air, but I could see his left hand reaching toward his boot for something – the glint of a vibroblade was there. Before the weequay could react, however, the droid grabbed the alien's thick braid of hair and lifted him clear off the floor, then buried his free hand into the weequay's abdomen with a thunderous punch. A gout of blood sprayed out of my attacker's mouth and the droid dropped him to the floor where he lay motionless.

The droid turned to face me. "Are you unharmed, sir?" it asked in a calm voice.

I nodded shakily. "Yeah, fine…" I replied. "What are you doing here?"

The droid looked down at the unconscious weequay. "I believe that is obvious, sir."

I ran a hand over my sweaty face. "No… why are you here? And what's your designation?"

"I am AVR-8P0, human-cyborg relations and protocol," came the proud reply. "My human compatriots designate me Aveear, which you are more than welcome to do, sir. I came to be here at the request of Mistress Aeries to… keep an eye on you, sir."

"Well, you're doing one hell of a job, Aveear," I remarked, looking down at my assailant. "Did Mistress Aeries give you any instructions on cleaning up after yourself?"

Aveear straightened. "I am fully programmed for domestic duties, sir."

I turned to head for my inner office. "Then clean this mess up."

"But, sir!" Aveear started. My answer was the slam of the inner office door.

I woke up with Aefeeh's ID card stuck to my cheek. The rodian's belongings were spread out across my desk, and a couple of the smaller parts were adhered to my face from my sleeping on them. Glancing at the chrono on my wrist, I found it was only a few hours before sunrise. Cursing, I rubbed my eyes with balled fists – I hadn't wanted to fall asleep. Chances were it was too late to follow up on what I had found in Aefeeh's pockets.

Jumping out of my chair, I peeled some more creds from my cheeks and reached out for the blaster I had fixed a few hours earlier. It was gone.

"I took the liberty of adding some upgrade modules to your Blastech DL-35, sir."

Aveear's even tones nearly made me jump out of my skin. The droid stood in the shadows just inside the door to my inner office. His dark metal plating made him difficult to see, and it was only when his optical sensors flared to life that I was able to pick out his cranial unit. "Don't ever do that again," I told the droid.

Aveear stepped forward into the dim circle of light thrown by the glowing orb hovering over the corner of my desk. In his hands he gingerly held what used to be a Blastech DL-35. "I apologize, sir," Aveear said. "But I assumed you would appreciate a more powerful…"

"I meant the hiding in the shadows trick," I replied, stepping forward and snapping the blaster out of the droid's grip. "Thanks for the… uh… upgrades. Listen, I gotta take a trip into Spacer Town. Why don't you go on home to Mistress Aeries?"

Aveear took a long stride, putting him between the door and me. "Mistress Aeries has requested I keep an eye on you. I will join you in Spacer Town."

I stared into the droid's passively featured faceplate, remembering what he did to the weequay. "You're not going to let me go until I say okay, are you?"

"Correct, sir."

"I'm going to regret allowing you to tag along, aren't I?"

"No, you won't, sir."

Aveear stepped out of the way and I swung the door open into the outer office. The weequay was gone, as was the worn carpet. What remained was the dusty wooden sub flooring. I could clearly see two burn marks from the attacker's blaster shots by the main door. The potted tree was upright again, sitting in the corner where Nanse kept it.

"Nice job," I remarked. "Was he carrying any ID?"

"No, he wasn't, sir," Aveear told me. The droid passed by me and repositioned the blasted hrkyu tree by about a quarter centimeter. "But I believe he worked for Jyergo Huthis."

"What? Why?" I asked, surprised by the droid's insight.

"Because he has been seen in the company of Aefeeh Neil and Qort Teeno on regular occasions."

I set the office's security system and stepped into the dark hall. "What kind of protocol droid are you, Aveear?"

"The kind that watches the news, sir," was the droid's reply.

I kept my speeder in the secured garage beneath the office building. Several card-access locks blocked the way for unauthorized access, and in three years of renting my office, I had never had a problem with vandalism. However, after what happened upstairs, I wasn't taking any chances. I sent the 'droid in, first.

"I am not scanning any threats, sir," Aveear remarked from the garage. I stepped through the door, blaster in hand, and looked around quickly. The place was deserted. It was still hours before the work-day started, and the dance instructers wouldn't be showing up until well after dawn. All that was in the small garage space was my own speeder and the aircar belonging to the club manager.

"That's mine," I said to Aveear, and led him to my ride. The LXS-22 had served me faithfully since my arrival on Iotra, despite the scratches, bumps, holes and mechanical problems. The closed cockpit had a sunroof, and the sound system was the best I could afford. I wasn't planning on getting rid of it any time soon. We climbed in, and within a few moments I was navigating down the cracked streets to Spacer Town.

With the hour as late as it was, there was next to nobody on the streets except for a few questionable individuals and some police IPF patrols. The apartment complex where Aefeeh lived was on the opposite end of Town, and I cruised past the Nook to see if the IPF was still nosing around. Qort, and the speeder he had jacked, had been cleaned up. An IPF forcefield had been erected at the entrance to the alley where I had blanked poor Aefeeh, but there was no police presence at all.

"You are travelling several kilometers over the posted speed limit, sir," Aveear remarked after several quiet minutes.

"Thanks for the update, Av'," I replied, and opened the throttle up a little more. Buildings flashed past on either side of the speeder, multicoloured neon lights flashing against the windscreen at increasing speed.

"You have increased your speed by thirty seven and a half kilometers per hour, sir!"

I didn't reply. For some reason, I really enjoyed razzing this 'droid.

It was only a short time longer that we arrived at the aparment complex marked on Aefeeh's ID. The building was one in a long line of decrepit buildings running down both sides of the narrow street. The building across from it was so close I felt as though you could reach out one of the windows and touch it. I parked my speeder half a block away, and we walked along the quiet street to Aefeeh's building.

Most of the front doors to the complexes were open, and cool stale air wafted out onto the streets from them. I could see peeling paint, dripping water, and bare cables coming down from the ceilings. Windows were broken, and garbage was strewn across the walkways and street. Two iotran children, dressed in tattered clothing, stared out of an allyway at us as we walked by. With stifled giggles, they ran off into the darkness.

"They should be slumbering," Aveear remarked vaguely.

"I guess a lot of the normal rules don't apply here," I replied.

Aefeeh's building was like all the others, but worse. Aside from the dangling power cables and leaking water, there were gaping holes in the walls of the lobby, and all the lifts were marked as 'Out of Service'. I checked the ID card for the unit number Aefeeh had been renting, and sighed when I realized it was on the eighteenth floor.

"I could carry you, sir," Aveear said when I relayed the information. I gave him a wry grin and headed for the stairs.

Seventeen agonizing floors later, I looked upon the door marked '18' with victorious glee. I shoved it open and stepped into the hallway. The carpeting was worn right through to the duracrete floors in many places, and I could easily tell that some of the unit doors had been forced open some time ago. A card-access panel sparked intermittantly with flickering blue light. More cables hung from the ceiling, left over from residents trying to bypass the meters which kept track of their power usage, and there was still the neverending sound of dripping water.

Aefeeh's unit was four doors down on my right, and I used the access card I had found on him to gain access. Aveear and I stepped in quickly, and I locked the door behind us. The place was dark, the only light coming through a surprisingly whole window in a small enclosed balcony. I pulled a small luma from my pocket and flipped it on. Aveear's cranial unit made a short buzzing noise as he switched his optical sensors over to another mode – perhaps infrared.

"What are we looking for, sir?" the 'droid asked.

"Anything that connects Aefeeh to Jyergo," I replied. "As well as any datacards, comlinks, anything."

Aveear went off to the left past a small kitchenette while I stepped into a short hallway to the right. A horrible smell came out of the refresher, so I avoided that room and turned a corner to my left, finding myself in the bedroom. A stained mattress was laid out on the duracrete floor, with some clothes scattered about. The window was boarded up, though some light filtered through the cracks. I kicked through the clothing and pornography publications on the floor, finding only a spice pipe and a broken vibroknife. Aveear appeared at the door to the bedroom to let me know he hadn't found anything of importance.

I dreaded what I had to do next. Stepping past Aveear, I moved into the refresher and swung my luma across the room. It looked as though it had never been cleaned, and at least a centimeter of dust and grime covered nearly every flat surface. I focused the light beam into some cupboards, but found only the personal effects of a rodian with hygiene problems. There was only one place left to check, and I was not looking forward to it.

Reaching up behind the toilet, I felt along the space between the tank and the wall for anything. Almost immediately my hand found a loose packet, so grasped on to it and pulled down. It came away freely from the tank, and I stood up, focusing the luma's beam onto it. Inside a thin flimsiplast bag was a datacard.

"Bingo," I said, tossing the bag into the air and catching it. I stuffed it into an inner pocket of my jacket and led Aveear back to the door. "Easy as shooting mynocks in a cargo crate!"

I hit the door release and it slid open, revealing two individuals. The smaller one was bent over slightly, fiddling with the card-access port for Aefeeh's apartment. The other was a big, dumb-looking herglic. They looked up, eyes wide, and went for their blasters. Before I could draw, a blaster shot whined over my shoulder and exploded into the wall between the two of them. They dove out of the way and I slapped the door release again, slamming it shut. I hit the lock and spun to look at Aveear, just in time to see a wrist-mounted blaster disappear into his forearm.

"What-?" I stammered, but the 'droid took my arm and moved me away from the door.

"Sorry, sir," Aveear said in his calm voice. "I should have scanned the entrance before you opened the door. They are heavily armed, we cannot go that way."

I gestured to the door. "That's the only way out, Aveear."

Before the 'droid could answer, a blaster bolt punched through the doorway and exploded on the wall only half a meter from where I stood.

"I don't believe it is, sir," Aveear replied, as he slowly turned to look at the large balcony window.

The voices of the two men floated through the door toward me, and I knew I heard one of them say 'detonator'. "Please tell me you've got a jet-pack hidden in your torso, somewhere."

"No, sir, I do not," Aveear replied. "But I do have very powerful leg servos, and fifth generation mylar musculatuer."

I heard a quiet beep from the hallway, and turned to look at the window. "You're sure about this?" I asked, my voice raising an octave as I began to panic.

"No."

"Good enough, let's go."

With one hand, Aveear picked up a steel-framed chair and pitched it through the window, smashing a fair-sized hole. His other arm wrapped around my waist and suddenly I was lifted off the floor and moving towards the newly-opened window. As we lurched upwards and outwards, there was another, louder beep behind us and the door to the hallway blew into the apartment with tremendous force.

We were already airborn. The wind whistled past me as though I were riding a swoop bike, and I felt as though Aveear's metal body was pulling me down toward the street with tremendous speed. I could see the building on the other side of the street approaching, but it also seemed to be rocketing skyward. I tried to count the number of floors we were descending past, but lost track at six. I saw a broad section of crumbling duracrete wall skim past, and then a crash, and then darkness.

I tumbled end over end, my shoulder cracking against something hard before I came to rest on my back. I stumbled to my feet as quickly as I could, my left shoulder screaming out in pain – I had nearly dislocated it. There was a trail of ruin leading from the broken window of the apartment unit we had landed in, past me, into another room. Part way there, I could see one of Aveear's arms, seperated at the shoulder, lying in the grime. In the darkness of the room beyond, two photoreceptors flared to life.

"Are you unharmed?" came the 'droid's voice.

"Relatively," I replied. "You?"

"I seem to have misplaced my right arm," said Aveear as he stepped out of the darkness into the light of the broken window. "We seemed to have escaped those burglers. Would you have a repair kit somewhere?"

Holding my shoulder I looked out from the broken window. We had fallen thirteen stories, and were now on the fourth floor of the building opposite from Aefeeh's unit. I couldn't see anyone at the window we had just jumped from. "Back at my place," I replied. "Let's get going before those thugs track us down."

Aveear picked up his right arm, inspecting it closely. "Perhaps these quick-release appendages could be strengthened."


	4. Chapter 3

My own apartment was in the Merchant District, a much nicer part of Kor. However, if my current financial situation didn't change soon, I'd be looking at moving into Aefeeh's place, blown-out door and all.

Aveear stood in the doorway of my small place, scanning with his receptors. "Your abode is cozy, sir."

"Your protocol programming serves you well, Av'," I replied as I draped my long jacket over a worn sofa. "Have a seat somewhere, I'll get the repair kit as soon as I start a decrypter on this datacard."

My personal terminal glowed softly at me as I sat down in the closet I referred to as my 'den'. Sliding the datacard into a port, I was quickly greeted with a 'restricted access' message. Immediately, my built-in decrypter went to work. From a shelf overhead I grabbed a small repair kit and went back to the common room where Aveear was seated, cradling his right forearm in his lap.

"I'll make you better than new in no time," I remarked, sitting down and pulled a small pair of hydrospanners from the kit, and a laser-welder.

"Hardly possible, sir," Aveear replied matter-of-factly. "I am heavily modified from my factory standards."

I laughed a bit. "Yeah, I noticed. Not many AVR units have built-in blaster pistols and war-droid class musculateur. Are you going to tell my why you're so heavily modified, or not?"

Aveear was silent for quite some time. While the 'droid mulled it over, I inspected the damage of the arm and prepared to reattach it. Finally his head turned to look at me. "No, sir, I am not."

"So be it," I replied, and fused some connections together. Rotating the arm back into place, I twisted it sharply to lock the quick-release into place. "Try that."

Aveear twisted and rotated the elbow connection as best he could. "Well done, sir, I am grateful for your assistance."

"It's a good thing you're the only one here quick-release parts. I don't think you could do the same for me, with all due respect."

In the closet/den, my terminal beeped. I jumped up and rushed in to see a short list of dates and locations scrolling down the screen. Aveear followed me in, and looked over my shoulder as I sat down and halted the scrolling. "The encryption was low… what is this stuff?"

"Locations," Aveear said. "And dates that correspond to them."

Shipping dates? I thought to myself. Meetings between criminal masterminds? It didn't make any sense – why would Aefeeh have such information? I looked closely at the locations; Dantooine, Coruscant, Chandrila, Pantolomin. What did it all mean? The only thing any of it had in common that I could understand was that I had vacationed on both Chandrila and Coruscant.

"That's it," I said quietly.

"Sir?"

"It's a schedule!" I snapped. "This is Jyergo's vacation schedule. He's on the Coral Vanda."

"Brilliant," Aveear commented.

"Brilliant," Teryn said from the worn seat across from my desk. "So, when do you leave?"

"Leave?" I asked, incredulous. "For where?"

"Pantolomin, of course!" Teryn replied, eyes wide. "I asked you to track down my fiancé, remember?"

"I did… he works for Jyergo Huthis, and Jyergo Huthis is on Pantolomin, most likely on the Coral Vanda watching the fish. You told me Sandstar is a bodyguard of his, so that's where your fiancé is. Job done. Now, you owe me…"

"Not good enough. I need to know if Trey is alive, and you telling me that Jyergo Huthis is relaxing on some submerged casino doesn't answer my question." I could see Teryn was getting hot under the collar, and it definitely didn't make her less attractive. I was a sucker for angry dames, so I backed off.

"I don't have a ship, and I don't have the creds to get a transport to Pantolomin," I told her. "This is going to affect your cost."

Teryn smiled, leaned back in her seat, and crossed her arms. "You need a ship? I have a ship, and I'll take you to Pantolomin myself. I want to be there when you find him. I don't want to have to wait for him to come back to Iotra."

I threw my hands in the air. "Fine," I snapped. "I've got to get some things together, but tell me where your ship is and I'll meet you there in a few hours."

Teryn gave me the landing bay her ship was in, and left with her iotran porter. Aveear, of course, stayed behind with me. While the 'droid watched, I collected a few things into a small bag including a change of clothes, some blaster packs, a datapad, a portable computer terminal and some other small things I didn't like to leave home without. I was about to speak with Nanse about looking after things while I was gone when, from her outer office, I heard her start speaking with a visitor.

"Yes, Mister Power is in, do you gentlemen have an appointment?" Nanse asked, her mother tongue of iotrese heavily accenting her nearly flawless basic.

"This is my appointment," came a gruff reply, and and instant later there was a short buzzing noise and then a loud thud.

Suddenly Aveear was at my side, his blaster snapping out of it's hiding place in his left forearm. I drew my own blaster and moved away from the door.

"Nanse?" I called out. "Are you okay?"

My assistant didn't reply. Instead, a line of blaster bolts peppered through the frosted glass wall separating my inner office from the outer office. I dodged to the side, but a bolt skipped off of Aveear's torso, exploding against the far wall. I shouted out in mock pain.

"My arm! Blast, they got my arm!" I cried out, levelling my blaster at the door. Aveear seemed unaffected by the shot he took, and prepared to attack as well.

The door suddenly smashed open as something or someone big slammed into it. At the site of the first leg coming through the opening, I knew we were in trouble.

"Blast…" I repeated, quieter this time. It was the same herglic who Aveear and I ran into at Aefeeh's apartment. The blue-skinned monolith was dressed in business attire, and it didn't make him look any less dangerous. He had to lean down to make it through the door, as his tiny, wide-set eyes turned to settle on me. In his hand was a stun-stick, which he raised as he began roaring toward me. There was no way my measly Blastech DL-35 was going to stop this monster, but I squeezed off a shot anyhow.

The pistol kicked in my hand like a scared tauntaun. The bolt smashed into the herglic's left shoulder, spinning him like a top, his feet making a thunderous staccato on the floor as he tried to keep from falling over. Aveear moved up from his position behind the creature and placed another blaster bolt into his spine. The herglic reacted by backhanding Aveear into the office wall with a resounding 'clang'.

The well-dressed monster turned back to me and growled through clenched teeth. "Kill you, too!" he grumbled in basic, probably the only words he knew.

My attacker swung at me, and I felt the breeze as his fist cut through the air. If he had managed to make contact, surely I would be heading through the window right now. He missed, however, thrown off by our attacks. I snapped my blaster back up, this time prepared for the kick that was the result of Aveear's tinkering. I fired at point-blank range into the herglic's face, and his squat skull split down the middle, instantly cauterized by the blast. With a bubbly groan, he collapsed in a heap on the office floor. I stared down at the still body for a moment, and suddenly it hit me. A few short moments ago, Nanse had said 'gentlemen'.

Plural. More than one.

Looking up quickly, I noticed another figure glide through the door, blaster levelled at my chest. It was the herglic's partner from Aefeeh's apartment, a slender twi'lek with pale skin and deep-set eyes that burned as twin embers. His mouth twisted in a toothy sneer as his finger tightened on the trigger. Before this newcomer could fire a shot, however, Aveear cruised up from behind and knocked him on the back of the head, crumpling the twi'lek to the floor an an instant.

Nanse recovered from the stun-stick quickly enough, and I sent her home for the rest of the day. "I'm going offworld for a few days," I told her. "I'll com you when I get back. Maybe we can spend some time fixing this place up a bit. If this job goes well, we can even move the office into that building downtown. You're sure you don't need a ride home?"

"No, but maybe a raise" Nanse replied, smiling. "My lifemate is coming to get me, I'm meeting him downstairs. You be careful, Mister Power."

"I will," I said. "I'll see you soon."

Nanse left and I turned to Aveear. "What did you do with the bodies?"

Shaking his head, Aveear said nothing.

"Fine, I won't ask," I replied. "But this is getting ridiculous. Someone doesn't like me tracking down Huthis, and they're going to keep trying harder to stop me."

"I think it would be best, then, if you got off of Iotra for a little while, sir," Aveear suggested.

"Right," I said, then shouldered my bag and left the office with the 'droid in tow.

Teryn Aeries's ship, the Dalam Iris, was a streamlined cruiser, reminiscent of the old Nubian ships. Matte blue, it was difficult to make out in the darkness of the evening. The landing bay lights tried illuminating the underside, but the starship just seemed to eat up the light. Garbed in a form-fitting tan flightsuit, Teryn looked the part of the spacer in every way, except for the flawless skin and perfect hair. Her dark wavey locks were pulled back from her face, kept together with a silver clip just above the nape of her slender neck. She stood at the bottom of the loading ramp giving orders to a small maintainence droid. As we walked into the bay, she turned and smiled, pulling on a pair of leather gloves she had been holding. A holdout blaster was strapped low on her right hip.

"Great, I'm just going through power-up, and have clearance from the tower!" she called.

I reached the bottom of the ramp and tossed my small bag up into the ship. "I'm glad you're happy," I said grumpily. "I was almost killed again."

Teryn looked at Aveear and back to me, shocked. "Who tried to kill you?" she asked.

"Some herglic, and his weasily twi'lek partner," I replied. "That makes twice. Three, if you count that these two were the same who tracked me down to Aefeeh's apartment in Spacer Town. Someone sure as hell doesn't want me to know where Jyergo is – I just don't understand why." A pause. "Let's get the hell out of here."

"My sentiments exactly," Teryn replied with a winning smile. Placing a hand on my arm, she walked up the ramp at my side with Aveear following us both. The inside of the Iris was sparsely appointed, with only the necessities. From the ramp corridor, Teryn led me forward, through a spartan lounge decorated in dark blues and gold, past a series of well-organized work tables and finally to the command deck. The sweeping cockpit windows gave a wide view of the ship's fore and side arcs. Teryn slid into the left seat and gestured to a seat behind her. Her iotran porter was already seated on the right.

"A lady of many talents," I said with a smile to the porter in her own language. She merely glanced at me and went back to the controls.

Okay, I thought to myself. Never mind, then.

As Teryn and her co-pilot went over the last of the pre-flight checklist, I considered wandering back into the ship to explore. As I turned to sneak down the corridor, I found a big blue droid blocking my way.

"Oh, hello, Aveear!" I said cheerfully.

"You should strap in, sir," Aveear commented flatly, and then stood in the command deck doorway and stared at me.

"Sure, I was just about to," I replied, watching Aveear closely as I slowly turned back around and pulled the straps over my shoulders. Within minutes we were star-bound.

The flight to Pantalomin was scheduled to take just under thirty hours, barring any unforeseen difficulties such as Imperial Interdictors or mysterious hyperspace anomolies. After being allowed by Aveear to leave the cockpit, the droid showed me to a small cabin where I could rest. A small 'fresher unit was accessible from there, so I made use of it and then lay down on the small cot, my hands folded behind my head. With the lights dimmed to twenty percent, I stared up at the bulkhead above me.

A thought nibbled at me from deep down inside my mind. Something wasn't sitting right with me, and hadn't for some time now. Obviously Teryn's AVR droid was modified way beyond spec, but that wasn't particularly unusual for the spoiled children of rich executives and politicians. The search I had done on Teryn Aeries had turned up that she was the only daughter of Yorhan Aeries, a bacta magnate from Thyferra. Aeries had accumulated a massive fortune before his untimely death shortly before the start of the rebellion, and left all he had to Teryn. She promptly sold the business and left Thyferra, showing up in all sorts of places before landing on my doorstep. By the looks of her destinations, she loved to travel.

But that still wasn't what bothered me.

Earlier, in my office, the herglic had said 'kill you, too'. Too. He must have known he hadn't killed Nanse, so other than me, who else was he planning on killing?

Mulling this over in my head, I rolled onto my side and ordered the lights down to five percent. I was convinced I wouldn't be able to fall asleep. A chime sounded through my cabin, and I snapped my eyes open. "Lights, fifty percent," I said. In the brighter illumination, I found the com-panel and depressed the talk switch. "Yeah?"

"Good morning," came Teryn's soft voice. "I trust you slept well?"

Good morning? "How long was I out?" I asked her.

"About eight hours," she replied.

Eight hours! I thought. I haven't slept for eight straight hours since I left Corellia!

"If you'd like something to eat, I've got some food in the lounge."

I was going to thank her and say no, but even the mere mention of the word 'food' made my stomach grumble. It must have sounded like a rancor's roar.

"Oh, I heard that!" Teryn said through the com with a laugh. "I'll have Aveear bring out some extras!"

I used the 'fresher again, changed into some fresh clothes I had brought along and made my way to the ship's lounge. The deckplates hummed underneath my feet in a way that I recognized – the Iris was hurtling through hyperspace at better than a times-one multiplier. I stopped in the corridor and placed a hand on the bulkhead. Not quite point five, but close. This is a stanging fast ship.

In the lounge, I found Teryn resting on a couch and reading over a datapad. She had changed out of her flightsuit and was now garbed in more casual attire – a plain white cotton shirt worn loose at the neck, military-cut pants and leather spacer boots. Seeing me step into the lounge, she smiled and placed the datapad down on the couch next to her.

"There's my hero!" she said. "How did you sleep?"

"I didn't even realize I had," I replied, taking in the platters of food and containers of drink placed on the lounge table. "And I wouldn't exactly call me a hero."

Teryn slid across the couch a ways and patted the cushioning next to her. "Well, you've tracked down my fiancé, and for that you're my hero. Now, sit and eat."

I tore into the caf and pastries while Teryn watched, saying nothing. I would look up at her and smile from time to time, but mostly I ate and drank. She was definitely younger than I was, by perhaps eight or ten years, putting her in her early twenties, I guessed. She finally broke the silence.

"Are you married, Mister Power? Or maybe you have a girlfriend?"

I froze in mid-bite. As a police officer on Corellia I never had much time for relationships, and after that debacle and my subsequent move to Iotra I simply was unlucky enough to never find that certain special someone. Sure, there were trysts and affairs over the years, but nothing of any real substance. I swallowed without chewing, forcing the food down so quickly it was almost painful.

"Uh… no, neither, actually," I said uncomfortably. "Never really found the time for it. Not that I wouldn't mind, of course… I just…"

Teryn nodded and patted my shoulder. "I understand… you don't choose to be with women?"

"No!" I shot back, louder than I probably should have, and then laughed. "No, Miss Aeries, I'm not like that. I love women, I just haven't been as lucky as you to find the perfect mate."

Teryn smiled briefly. "Call me Teryn. And yes, I am very… lucky," she said, and then glanced over her shoulder to a chrono over one of the tidy workstations. "I should get back to the cockpit, Eeisi gets a little put-out when she's alone up there for a while."

I was alone in the lounge. The Iris cut through space like a vibroblade through water, and I felt exceedingly uneasy with my situation. Downing another swallow of caff and stuffing one last pastry into my mouth, I headed back to my cabin.

I stepped into the small compartment and hesitated. There was an odd scent on the air – a very light floral scent that was oddly familiar. I didn't remember smelling it when I was in the cabin earlier, but my olfactory senses could have been accustomed to it, rendering it unnoticable. It was intriguing, however a wave of fatigue washed over me and I decided to lie down again. I practically collapsed onto the cot and shut my eyes.

"Lights…" I managed to say, but the rest disappeared under a blanket of deep sleep.

Teryn sat next to me as I lay on my back, arms folded over my chest. "I'm having difficulties," she said, and touched my cheek.

"Difficulties with what?" I said in a voice that was not my own. She smiled down at me and shook her head.

"This charade, what do you think?" she snapped. I couldn't imagine why she was so angry at me.

I stood behind her now, but at the same time remained reclined on the small cot Teryn was seated on. "Don't forget your orders, this is important. I am not worth all of this emotion."

"Don't patronize me!" she shouted back, but at the same time trying to keep her voice down. I was on the bed again, looking up at her lovely face. "What is to become of him when this is all over?"

"That depends on you," I replied from behind Teryn. "And how much you are willing to divulge to him. Keep quiet, and go your separate ways afterward, and he will be sent home and all will return to normal."

Teryn sighed and stood, leaving me behind on the bed. She stepped through the cabin doorway and it began to slide shut.


	5. Chapter 4

I woke up in my cabin, terribly disoriented. Reaching under my pillow, I felt for the holdout blaster I usually kept there but found nothing. I wasn't in my apartment. The floor was vibrating, and I began to panic.

You're on your way to Pantalomin, I reminded myself. You're not at home.

I got shakily to my feet and went into the 'fresher. Water was a premium on starships, but I splashed several handfuls on my face before towelling it dry. I was hungry again, so I stepped into the corridor and started for the lounge, but turned and headed for the cockpit instead. As I walked up the corridor, I could hear Teryn arguing with someone – most likely the iotran, Eeisie. I had spent enough time among iotrans to know that Eeisie was royally pissed off.

"We don't have the time to drop out at the standard civilian beacons!" Teryn was saying. "We use the inner system markers, and that's final."

"We are a civilian ship," Eeisie snapped back. "If we use the inner markers we could be blown to pieces by a patrol ship."

"You know we won't," Teryn said.

We won't? I thought suddenly. Why not?

"Greetings, sir," came Aveear's voice from behind me. "Are you lost?"

The 'droid had been in one of the small work rooms just aft of the cockpit, and had stepped out behind me as I crept past. "Oh, hey Aveear, I was just looking for everyone. I must have fallen asleep again," I said, head still a little swimmy from waking up. "What's our ETA?"

"We are making good time, sir," Aveear replied. "We are approximately twelve hours out from Pantalomin."

"Twelve…?" I repeated, stunned. I had to have been asleep for another eight hours or so. "Gods… I must have really passed out."

Teryn stepped up next to me from the cockpit. Her face was flushed and her brow was knitted, thought she tried desperately to hide her anger. "Hello, Mister Power, how was your nap?"

"Nap? I was asleep for another eight hours or more… that's no nap."

"You must have been tired," she replied. In her state of tension, I could see that Teryn was having difficulties remaining calm. It made her a bad liar.

"Call me Darien. And yes, I supposed I was tired," I said, calling up the best sabacc face I had. "But not anymore! Do you have a terminal I can use to catch up on Galactic Newsnet?"

"Sure, use one of the workstations off the lounge," Teryn suggested. "Aveear, why not show him where they are?"

"Of course, mistress," the 'droid said, and proceeded to lead me back to the lounge. I glanced over my shoulder at Teryn as I walked down the corridor. She was watching me, but as I turned she slipped back into the cockpit, and the doorway closed behind her.

The workstation terminal was state of the art, with access to the ship's hyperspace transciever. Aveear stood nearby as I pulled up GNN and began browsing the latest newsbriefs. Imperial in flavour, most of it was propoganda and fluff, but if you could read through the lines, sometimes some real information got through.

Apparently the Imperial navy had routed a rebel conclave, chased them across the Outer Rim and eventually captured some of the rebellion leaders at a tibanna gas mining operation in the Bespin system. This, of course, had dealt a serious blow to the rebel cause, and GNN was convinced it was only a matter of weeks before the whole Alliance crumbled under the justice of the Empire.

More like the iron fist of the Empire, I considered. I had no love for the Empire, in fact I pretty much despised their way of doing things. I was no rebel either, although I couldn't imagine anything too terrible happening if the Alliance was successful and Senator Mon Mothma managed to gain the seat of power on Coruscant. I could still remember the silent cheer I allowed myself when I heard that the rebels had destroyed Tarkin's Death Star. GNN had reported it as a rebel attack on a civilian space station, but Corsec knew different.

From the corner of my eye I regarded Aveear, who stood nearby but did not seem to be watching the terminal screen. I flipped the GNN interface to a smaller size on the screen and brought up another interface screen – this one connected to the Coruscant Botanical Research Foundation. I made random noises about the news on GNN as I punched in some search codes on the CBRF interface.

Treaucau molingita: the flower of the treaucau molingata of Orissh Prime is primarily used in medical faculties. A natural anesthetic, it can be safely injected into most species to induce deep sleep. In large quantities, the nectar of this flower can cause coma in many species. The pollen of this flower creates similar results. The flower of this tree has a distinct aroma comparable to the geliandra tree of Corellia.

I read this information quickly and closed the interface down. As a boy, there were three geliandra trees on my parents' property in the Lakes district. I would pick the fruit off of them in the harvest season and my mother would make sweet juice from them. That's why I recognized the scent in my cabin. I took another quick look up at Aveear to see him staring down at me.

"Have you found what you were looking for?" he asked.

"Yeah," I replied, shutting the terminal down. "Looks like the Imperials have got the rebels on the run… that's good news."

"Indeed," Aveear replied. "Would you like to return to your cabin?"

"No, I don't think so, Aveear," I said. "Is there somewhere I can sit and look outside the ship?"

The 'droid stood silent for a moment. "Yes. Mistress Teryn's quarters has a pleasant view from it's viewport. I am sure she would not mind if you borrowed her cabin for a time."

Aveear led me out of the lounge, away from the corridor leading to my cabin and the ship's cockpit. We came to a large compartment hatchway which hissed open quietly when the 'droid punched a code into the keypad next to the door. I caught it, and stored it away in case it would come in handy, later.

"Here you are, sir," Aveear said, gesturing to the space beyond. I nodded in thanks and stepped into the cabin. The door slid shut behind me and I was alone.

Teryn's cabin was a little nice than mine. A large squarish space, it was crowned by a plasteel dome which looked out into the tunnel of hyperspace. Several sweeping viewports along the starboard side of the ship spilled more mottled blue light into the cabin. As the rest of the ship, it was decorated in dark blues and gold. A large opulent bed with seemingly endless amounts of pillows was against the wall to my left, and a small seating area with two chairs and a small overstuffed sofa had been set up under the viewports. It was dimly lit by small wall-mounted lamps which gave the cabin a warm, inviting feel.

I whistled. "Nice," I said to myself. Next to the seating area was a small refrigeration unit which I peered into, finding individually-sized bottles labelled with the familiar icon of Mon Cal Springs water. I shook my head. This dame had some damned expensive tastes. I grabbed a bottle and settled into one of the chairs, staring out into space. It was the best way I could think to clear my mind and work out the things that were bothering me. The cushions padded me from the vibration of the ship, though I could still feel it through my booted feet.

It was obvious that I had been made to sleep twice now, with a gas produced by the flower of the molingita tree. There was a reason that Teryn wanted me out of her hair for those sixteen or more hours that I had been sleeping. I had only been awake for only a short while, and the Iris was underway, I knew that from the feel of the deckplates.

The deckplates. The vibration in the deckplates was different now. I could feel it. Earlier, the ship had been travelling at what I guessed to be faster than a times-one multiplier, but now we were moving slower. There weren't too many ships out there that moved faster than times-one – the Empire didn't allow it. Only their own naval destroyers could legally move that fast, and they even did in-system.

That was the other thing. Teryn and Eeisi were arguing about using civilian or military hyperspace beacons upon arrival at Pantalomin. Eeisi was right about being blasted into vapour if we used an in-system military beacon, but Teryn was insistant that it would be okay. How could it be, unless…

The door slid open and I turned to see Teryn shillouetted against the light of the corridor. She had a hand on either side of the hatchway, and I could tell by her body language that she was a lot more relaxed than she was when I last saw her outside the cockpit.

"Well, a trespasser!" she said sharply, stepping through the doorway which slid shut behind her.

I stood, hiding the bottle of water behind me. "Aveear said it wouldn't be a problem if I came in here to look out the viewports. I hope that was okay."

Teryn stood where she was and crossed her arms over her chest. "This isn't Aveear's cabin, it's mine," she scowled. With the door closed, I could see her sour expression. "You should have asked me, not him."

"I'm sorry," I flustered. "I assumed that because he said…"

"Because he said," she mocked. "Do you listen to everything a 'droid tells you and take it for fact? No wonder you're doing so poorly on Iotra. If you take the advice of a machine, you're not going to get very far in life. Why don't you start thinking for yourself, for a change? Gods, you sicken me!"

"Wh-what?" I asked, incredulous. She looked like she was enjoying this tyrade.

Teryn strode across the carpeted floor toward me and noticed what I was hiding behind me. "And drinking my expensive water, as well? You've got a lot of guts, Darien Power."

I set the bottle down on the small table next to the sofa, and ran a hand through my hair nervously. "Yeah… about that, I'm sorry…"

"Sorry doesn't cut it. That stuff costs five hundred creds a crate, and you're drinking it like it's Corellian ale!"

That cut it. I was trying to be apologetic, but now she was just getting downright nasty. "Yeah, you spoiled little brat? Then how the hell am I supposed to be drinking it? With a platinum straw?"

With a sneer Teryn grabbed the bottle from me. "Like this," she snapped, and raised it to her lips. She tilted her head back, extending her slender neck, and placed one hand on her hip. Drinking it back quickly, her adam's apple bobbed up and down slightly. A small trickle of water leaked from the corner of her mouth and travelled down her chin.

With a gasp, she finished the water. Handing the bottle back to me, her tongue flicked out and slowly licked the moisture from her lips. Her eyes closed as she tilted her head to one side and indicated the trickle of water now running slowly down her neck.

"Could you get that for me?" she asked, her voice smooth again.

My head swam, and for a moment I thought I could smell the floral scent of molingita again. It was Teryn who I could smell, though. Her light scent that had always clung to her like a fine mist was now feeling overpowering. My own body responded to her request before I could stop it by concentrating on investigative techniques or by recalling the numerous autopsies I had participated in. My heart thudded in my chest so loud that it seemed to drown out the hum of the ship around us.

"Teryn, I have a strict rule about my clientele," I forced myself to say. "Especially the ones that are engaged."

"If you don't get that little drop of water, it's going to soak into my shirt collar, and then I'm going to get all wet and have to take my shirt off," she said quietly, her head still tilted to one side, her eyes still shut. She placed both her hands on both of my forearms. "Please, Darien?"

I pulled my left hand back into the sleeve of my shirt and used the cuff to mop the droplet of water off of her neck. "There you go," I said quietly.

Teryn straightened up and opened her eyes, obviously disappointed but then intensely sad. "Oh, Darien, I'm sorry," she said, her voice choking off as she held back tears. "I'm so confused. I love Trey, I really do… but… you…"

The tears came, and they were genuine from what I could tell. She fell into me and I wrapped my arms around her shuddering frame. "It's okay, Teryn," I said. "I'm flattered, I really am. If you weren't engaged to this guy, I'd love to spend some time with you and see where things went."

"If I weren't engaged to Trey, we probably never would have met," she responded.

"True… well, I guess you came here to get some rest. I'll leave you to that."

I turned to leave, but Teryn caught my arm. "Darien… thanks. You're a good man."

I nodded, and left the cabin.


End file.
